How to structure IELTS essays

Read and understand the question

One key to it is understand the question and to be clear about what you want to say in your
response. Clear thinking leads to clear writing. As ever, the first step is to read and understand the
question. Here is the question today:

Despite advances in medicine there are concerns that certain diseases such as diabetes are
increasing and some people believe future generations will face greater problems with health
and die younger than we do today.
What is your opinion?
This question asks you to:

1. give your opinion – this must be clear in the introduction and the conclusion
2. about whether health will be better in future – this means that you need to talk about the future and
now – there must be some comparison
3. about whether people will live longer – this needs to be mentioned to
All these things must be included.

Think about the examiner – make your opinion and structure clear –
give your essay a backbone
IELTS essays get marked quickly. You don’t want to allow the examiner to make a mistake. So
make life easy for him/her by showing the structure of your essay as clearly as possible. There are
4 places you do this – what I think of as being the spine of the essay. (your spine is your backbone
– it’s what keeps you upright and gives you your structure).
1. the introduction – that’s the first thing they read and where you make your first impression and
first impressions count
2. the first sentence of each paragraph (x2) – examiners are taught that each paragraph should have
one main idea – show them what it is in the first sentence
3. the conclusion – that’s the last thing they read and the first thing they remember!
The key is link these things together so that
 the introduction matches the conclusion – the opinion/point of view is the same: you just need to
change the language
 the two body paragraphs link to the opinion/point view in the introduction
To do this try this simple essay structure plan. It may just look like 4 boxes on a blank piece of
paper, but it might save your life!
 my plan to structure IELTS essays

Think clearly about your opinion/point of view

You want your point of view to be clear. My basic rule is that if you can’t say in 2 sentences, it’s
too complex. So part of the planning process may be deleting ideas that are too complex or that
you can’t express clearly in English.
See my example

I’m going to go for a balanced type essay with an argument that it health and longevity (living for
a long time) will get worse in the West but better in developing nations. Before I start writing I
make sure I can say this simply

I think health will get worse in the west but better in developing countries and this will affect how
long people live.

Build the spine of your essay – see my example

All you need to do now is build the spine of the essay: the intro, first sentences and conclusion. I
really do do this using my essay structure plan above. I ended up with this. Take a look at it. See

 how simple it is – that’s good, you do want a simple structure

 how things repeat – that’s good too
 I crossed out my idea about stress and mental health. It’s a good idea, but would make the essay
too complex
Now get the words
This lesson wouldn’t be complete if I didn’t show you the “end-product”. Your plan is only good
if it helps you write well. Take a look at my opinions (in red) and the balance between developing
countries (in green) and the industrialised nations (in blue).

Introduction

There is no question that medicine has progressed dramatically over the last century, but this does
not mean that all our medical problems have been solved. Indeed, my belief is that the average life
span in the Western world may actually fall in the 21st century. This is in contrast to the situation
in developing countries where I expect health provision to improve and longevity to increase.
Paragraph 1

The main reason why overall health may become worse in the industrialised nations of the
West relates to modern lifestyles there.
Paragraph 2

The situation in the developing world is, however, quite different and overall health is likely
to improve.
Conclusion

My conclusion is therefore a mixed one. While it is true that people may face greater problems
with their health in the future, this only applies to industrialised nations and not to the developing
world where life expectancy may increase.
 Two ways to write discussion essays for IELTS
This lesson shows you two different discussion essays for IELTS. Part of the idea is to show you
that there is always more than one way to approach an IELTS essay. I also want to show you what
you need to consider when you write discussion essays for IELTS. This means first looking at
some basic ideas about essays and then thinking about what “discuss” means.

Two basic principles

When you write discussion essays for IELTS you need to understand 2 basic principles that apply
to all IELTS essays:

your essay must answer the question fully

your essay must be coherent
To get both of these right you need to think clearly about your essay structure before you start
writing.

Identify discuss questions

The question can be asked in different ways the usual format is typically:

Discuss both these points of view and give your opinion

If the question asks you to discuss, you do just that: discuss.

Discuss can mean two things

In fact, the question never ever says “write a discussion essay”. The reason for this is that different
teachers have different ideas about what a discussion essay is. The idea is not to write a model
“discussion essay”, rather it is to discuss the topic in the question – something quite different.
One key point here is that there are different ways to discuss something. Discuss includes both
these ideas:
stating what people think (perhaps saying why they believe this – this is a more
objective approach)
commenting on what people think (perhaps saying what the pros and cons of their view is – this
a more subjective approach)
For me, the better type of discussion essay is one that both states and comments on the different
views – if you do this you will discuss better.

Get a logical and clear essay structure

There is absolutely no one structure for a discuss question in IELTS. You simply have to find a
structure that is logical and allows you to answer the question. You will find 3 different examples
of how to do this below in my essays. Whichever structure you choose, you need to decide first:

what is my introduction?
how am I going to write two/three clear topic paragraphs?
what is my conclusion?
do all the parts of my essay fit together

See two different ways how to write a discussion essay

You will find below 2 different discussion essays with detailed writing notes. What you should
see is that:

both essays answer the question: they discuss the issue and give an opinion

one essay keeps the opinion to the end and discusses only objectively

the other establishes the opinion in the introduction and comments on the issues throughout the
essay

See a more objective discussion essay

See a more subjective discussion essay

Which is better?

I have a very strong preference for the second type of essay particularly if you are aiming for a
high score of 7.0 and above

it is typically more intelligent – by adding comments on the points of view you get more to say
and you are able to “discuss” the views both objectively and subjectively – this is likely to help
you give a much more complete answer by discussing the points of view fully and not merely
stating objectively what people think

it is typically much more coherent – your point of view is clear throughout the whole essay and
not just the conclusion

it allows you to avoid some very tired formulaic language

Some people prefer the other structure. Here is why it may help

it is perhaps quicker to learn – it often includes more formula language

it allows you to treat the two parts of the question separately: first their views and then your opinion
– this can seem simpler especially at lower levels

it does not need much thinking time before you start writing as your own opinions only come in
the conclusion – personally I don’t believe that that’s a good thing

Writing balanced essays for IELTS

This lesson talks you through an approach to writing balanced essays in IELTS. This is one form
of essay you should be prepared to write. It is certainly not the case that you have to express strong
 opinions in essays, you simply have to express clear opinions. One way of doing this is to look at
both sides of the argument and consider their merits in turn – this is a balanced essay.

When to write a balanced essay

The best time to use this approach is when you yourself can see merit in both sides of the argument
– it is not the case that this approach is restricted to “Discussion” essays: it is quite possible to use
it in “Argument” essays.

Essay structure and coherence

One key to writing a balanced essay is to make sure that the structure is coherent. This means that
all the parts of the essay should fit together as a whole. The idea is to make sure that anyone reading
the essay understands that it is looking at both sides of the issue. This should be clear at all stages
of the essay. A common problem is that one part of the essay does not fit into the main structure.To
do this, you need to consider:
 planning the whole essay before you start writing
 linking the different parts of the essay together
 writing the essay as part of a process – go back and read what have just written before you write
the next bit
 concentrating on the intro/topic sentences and the conclusion

The basic approach

The basic approach is quite simple: in each topic paragraph you consider a different/opposing point
of view. You then summarise your view about which side you prefer in the conclusion. In an exam
essay, it is almost certainly the best advice not to try and discuss the two points of view at the same
time in one paragraph. If you do this it is quite likely that the “argument” becomes confused and
your main goal is clarity.
 In this form of essay, it is conventional to look at the side you disagree with first. This allows you
to find a natural link between your final content paragraph and the conclusion – they should be
saying almost the same thing.

Introduction
The goal here is to state clearly that the essay is going to take a balanced position and/or look at
both sides of the issue. This means examiner/reader should understand from the introduction your
position and how essay will be structured. In practice this means that in the intro you should try
to:

 identify both sides of the argument

 show that there is merit on both sides
 identify which side you favour, (the balanced approach) and/or
 say you will look at both sides (the more neutral approach)
In the two example below, you should see the difference between these two approaches.

Neutral approach
In this approach, you merely state that both sides have merit and say you will look at both sides of
the case.

While there are grounds to argue that it would benefit society and young people themselves if
teenagers were made to do unpaid work in the community, it can equally be argued that this would
be an infringement of their rights. In this essay, I shall examine the merits of both sides of the
argument and state my own opinion.
Balanced approach
This is the approach I generally prefer as you clearly identify your position on one side of the
argument or the other. I believe it is better because it is simply clearer.

There are grounds to argue that it would benefit society and young people themselves if teenagers
were made to do unpaid work in the community. While this is an interesting proposal and has some
merit, my own view is that it would infringe their rights.

Main body
 In the main body, there are two ideas to focus on:

1. the paragraphs should balance each other

2. the paragraphs should link back to position in the introduction

Balancing your paragraphs

The key to making sure your paragraphs balance each other is to use your topic/first sentences
reflect each other. The examiner/reader should immediately understand how the paragraph fits into
the structure of the essay. A simple way of doing this is to use similar introductory language in
each paragraph. In the example below, it should be easy to see (even without the highlighting) how
the following paragraphs balance each other and reflect each others’ language.

One argument in favour of making teenagers do voluntary work in the community is that it would
benefit society. It is certainly true that there is a shortage of labour in many parts of the public
sector and if young people worked, then many public services would improve. For example, it
would be quite possible for teenagers to do part-time jobs in the health such as working as hospital
porters. This would have the effect of ensuring patients got better care and would allow trained
professionals to concentrate on more skilled tasks – something that would benefit society as a
whole.
Despite this argument, there is an equally strong case to be made that it would be morally wrong
to force teenagers to go out to work, particularly if they did not earn a salary. This can be
explained by the fact that in recent years, there has been a global movement to stop the practice
of child labour. The main philosophy behind this movement is that childhood, including the
teenage years, should be a time for education and growth, not work. It would not just send the
wrong message out if teenagers were made to do voluntary work, there is also the real danger that
young people would be exploited in the workplace.

Linking back to the introduction

A second skill is to make sure that your topic paragraphs refer back to the position in the
introduction. This is because it is important to maintain a constant position throughout the
essay -something that can often go wrong with balanced essays. Again, a simple to achieve this is
to make sure that the language and ideas of the first\topic sentences is reflected in the introduction.
This means that you should really have a clear idea of your whole essay before you write the
introduction. A second tip is that in the process of writing the content paragraphs of your essay
you should refer back to the introduction to borrow language and ideas from there. If you look at
the examples below, you should see how the first sentence of each paragraph links clearly back to
the introduction.

While there are grounds to argue that it would benefit society and young people themselves if
teenagers were made to do unpaid work in the community, it can equally be argued that this would
be an infringement of their rights. In this essay, I shall examine the merits of both sides of the
argument
One argument in favour of making teenagers to do voluntary work in the community is that it
would benefit society.
Despite this arguments, there is an equally strong case to be made that it would be morally
wrong to force teenagers to go out to work, particularly if they did not earn a salary

The conclusion

The same ideas apply to the conclusion: the language and ideas of the intro and the first/topic
sentences should be reflected here too. You may also consider referring back to some of the details
of your argument to emphasise that you are able to support your case with reasons and examples.
Do that and the the essay should be coherent. Again, it greatly helps if you remember to go back
and re-read the essay before you write the conclusion.

Some people think that teenagers should do unpaid work to help society because this will help
them to be better individuals and also improve the society as a whole. To what extent do you
agree or disagree with this proposal?
While there are grounds to argue that it would benefit society and young people themselves if
teenagers were made to do unpaid work in the community, it can equally be argued that this would
be an infringement of their rights. In this essay, I shall examine the merits of both sides of the
argument.
One argument in favour of making teenagers to do voluntary work in the community is that it
would benefit society. It is certainly true that there is a shortage of labour in many parts of the
public sector and if young people worked, then many public services would improve. For example,
it would be quite possible for teenagers to do part-time jobs in the health such as working as
hospital porters. This would have the effect of ensuring patients got better care and would allow
trained professionals to concentrate on more skilled tasks – something that would benefit society
as a whole.
Despite these arguments, there is an equally strong case to be made that it would be morally wrong
to force teenagers to go out to work, particularly if they did not earn a salary. This can be
explained by the fact that in recent years, there has been a global movement to stop the practice
of child labour. The main philosophy behind this movement is that childhood, including the
teenage years, should be a time for education and growth, not work. It would not just send the
wrong message out if teenagers were made to do voluntary work, there is also the real danger
that young people would be exploited in the workplace.
In conclusion, I believe that while there are real merits on both sides of the argument, the moral
case against forcing young people to work slightly outweighs any benefit to society. This is
reinforced by belief in the principle that childhood is a time for education and fear of the danger
of exploitation.